train derailment near new york city. an investigation underway right now. you'll hear from someone who was on that train in minutes. the death of a big movie star and the horrifying way he died. it's a tragic kind of hollywood ending. times up, and the white house says it has met the goal of revamping the healthcare.gov website and it's released new numbers. it could be a historic day on the internet tomorrow. the great expectations for retailers an why we might see a record. hello, everyone. high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." we have breaking news in new york city. a commuter train on its way to grand central station has

derailed, killing at least four people and injured 63 more. this happened in the bronx area just north of manhattan. these cars overturned precariously close to the hudson river. look at the video that's been shot at the scene. look at that. seven cars jumping the tracks, two of them turned completely on their side. firefighters, rescue workers, ambulances all on the scene, as well as the ntsb. and a passenger who was on board describes the seconds before impact and what happened next. >> just coming down and it was going fast as it was coming towards spuyten duyvil. you could feel it lean. it hit the curb real hard. i was very lucky. i was on the side of the train that went down, so i hit the window. all the chairs came out. a woman who was sitting across the aisle hit me and slid down. >> did you see any of the injuries or anything? >> yeah, actually. a couple people were hurt very badly right in front of me.

when the dust was starting to settle a little bit, literally, a woman in front of me, she was bleeding from her head pretty bad. >> one woman who first thought her daughter was on board that train talk with our affiliate wnbc about the moments of panic. >> i called my daughter because she was supposed to be on that train. luckily got on the train before. >> talk to me about that, the relief you're feeling right now. >> you know, i feel like i got one free. i was able to confirm she was okay minutes later, but those are probably the -- some of the worst minutes of my life. >> let's go live now to the scene where nbc's kristen dahlgren has the latest. kristen, it's been about 4 1/2 hours since this derailment. what are the numbers coming in right now and in terms of cleanup or cost, where are we on that front? >> reporter: right now we still have the four dead and 63 injured. they say they have checked and rechecked. they don't believe that there's

anyone else unaccounted for. take a look down here, and you can see just how difficult of a scene this was to get to. there's a steep hill. there's that one car that's just inches away from the river. so a really difficult extrication for the officials that were first on scene here. they actually had to shore up the train, use air pillows, giant air pillows to lift those cars off of some of the victims. so that's just how horrific it was here. we're told that they believe three out of the four deceased were thrown from the train. so witnesses really describing -- one gentleman who was walking his dog out here and saw the aftermath said it is something he will never forget. the investigation now underway, so they're moving this away from a rescue operation, making it a crime scene. the ntsb expected on scene shortly to begin its investigation as well. one thing, alex, we're hearing over and over here from

witnesses, though, is thank goodness this wasn't a monday morning. obviously very bad. we're still trying to get the numbers of just how many people were on the train when it went off the tracks. people saying if this had been a monday morning, people going back to work, it could have been much, much worse. really just a terrible scene. we'll continue to stay out here and let you know if we hear anything else. >> right. kristen, anecdotely speaking, have you heard anybody talk about the speed? we offered a sound bite from somebody who was on the train who said it seemed like it was going pretty fast. and this comes on the heel of a july 18th derailment of a freight train that was carrying trash from new york city in which ten cars went off the track in a pretty close area to where this happened. so speed, is that something being talked about? >> reporter: yeah, and you know what, i asked the governor and the police commissioner about that. they said they're looking into it right now. it doesn't appear like maybe they're related. i don't know you can see, but

there's a really steep curve that this train has to go around here. we're seeing an area where it's straight going into the station and then to the north. it is a pretty big curve. so some of the witnesses that we were talking to who heard this said they heard a screeching noise, something just didn't sound right for them when they heard this accident taking place. so it's something that the ntsb will be looking into very closely. to have two train derailments in this general area in such a short period of time, it is definitely something that they'll have to investigate further. >> i'll bet they're thanking their lucky stars that the one car at the front did not go into the water. though, weren't there are divers nonetheless looking in the area? >> reporter: at one point, i counted seven rescue boats just off the shore here. they were out there. they had divers in the water. it was really an extensive rescue operation, just making sure there was nothing they missed.

they did have cadaver dogs on scene. we saw those going through the train cars, looking under the cars, sniffing to see if there was anything they might have missed because the officials on scene here were working with the mta to figure out just how many people were on the train. they said that's difficult to do. you have people getting on and off at different stations and they didn't have an exact number of how many people they needed to account for. so for several hours, they were really going over and over this scene making sure that there was nobody that they could have missed. >> yeah, and you make a good point that this didn't happen on a monday morning commute, but let's face t this is a huge day for people traveling back from thanksgiving holidays. there will be a monday morning tomorrow. people are going to be trying to get to work. anyone who's trying to use -- this is the hudson line, correct, of metro north? >> reporter: yeah, it is the hudson line. there have been no disruptions on the other lines as far as we know, but this line is going to be shut down at least for the monday morning commute.

looks like it could take some time to get this out of there. so people need to think ahead and make alternate plans because this is going to cause some service disruptions at least tomorrow. >> okay. nbc's kristen dahlgren there at the scene of this trail derailment. thank you for the live report. well, this derailment comes as millions are gearing up to head back after the thanksgiving weekend. aaa estimates about 43 million american traveled 50 miles or more for the holiday. nbc meteorologist dylan dreier has the forecast for the travelers. there's a big storm brewing in the northwest. good morning. >> good morning, alex. yeah, we are seeing most of the activity in the pacific northwest, but most of the country doing a lot better as everyone travels back home as opposed to how this whole holiday weekend started off with that huge storm system making its way in from the southeast. but for right now, we're not really seeing too much of an issue, even in the pacific northwest, although there could be flight delays into ctac airpo --

sea-tac airport. the snow in the mountain passes. the snow level is above the mountain pass level. so that is certainly helping with any folks trying to get over the mountains. it's mostly just rain at this point. in the northeast, though, in boston just outside of boston, about 45 miles to the west, we saw some slippery road conditions with the wintry mix early this morning. although, it is up to 44 degrees now. there could be some slick spots out that way, especially in the higher elevations. 31 degrees right now in minneapolis. it's only going to warm up to about 34. the warmest air is sitting down across the south with miami at about 80 degrees this afternoon. as we go into tomorrow as everyone heads back to work, we'll see more of a wintry mix in the minneapolis area, although it doesn't look like anything too intense or too heavy. still a few spotty showers in boston. for the most part, for everyone traveling today, it doesn't look like too big of a deal. >> that's good news. thank you very much. the other big story developing at this hour, the

obama administration issuing a progress report saying it has achieved its goal of making the healthcare.gov website operate more smoothly for the vast majority of users. that deadline came and went at midnight last knighnight. the government report says more than 50,000 people can log on to the website at the same time, an more than 800,000 will be able to shop for insurance coverage daily. here's how some key lawmakers are reacting today. >> have they made some progress? yes, they brought in some private sector folks to try to get the functionality up. it still doesn't function right. as a matter of fact, their own cio said that he believed that if they had the ability to get up to 80% functionality, that would be a good day for them. >> the administration has hit the big benchmarks they set out, right. 50,000 people at one time, 800,000 people a day. this is going to take some time before it's up and kicking in full gear. i think what we have to look at is those state where is you have

well-functioning websites like california, like new york, like kentucky. >> let's go right to the white house now for more on this developing story from nbc's kristen welker. a good day to you. what's the word on healthcare.gov at this hour? >> reporter: well, alex, good afternoon to you. according to jeffrey zeinst, who was put in charge of fixing healthcare.gov, the website on december 1st is night and day from where it was on october 1st. i'm quoting, of course, but the administration touting the fact they say they have made vast improvements to the website, fixing over 400 bugs. and just to look again at the figures they're releasing today. they say the website can support 50,000 users at one time. that was their stated goal. they also say that adds up to about 800,000 people a day. they say it works more than 90% of the time. so the administration really trying to turn the page on what has been an incredibly difficult chapter politically for this

president. it's called his second-term agenda into question, his legacy into question as well, made a lot of democrats, particularly those facing duff re-election battles very nervous. so the administration and its allies really trying to focus on the positive and also the future. zeke emanuel appeared on "meet the press." >> in the long run, over the next few years and to the end of the decade, this is going to have a dramatic improvement. it's going to lower costs. you're going to have competition in the exchanges. that's already keeping insurance costs down and going to keep them down further. you're having improvements in the health care system. hospitals have to work on readmissions. >> reporter: so the big question is, what does this all mean? right now we only have an ecdotl evidence. we talked to a few people saying they had a positive experience. they were able to get on to the site, to enroll.

so that is what we are hearing from people. but in terms of hard figures, we're going to have to wait a while because the white house only releases figures once a month. so we'll likely get that in another two weeks. the next major deadline is december 23rd. that's when folks have to enroll in order to get coverage by january 1st. the site will be flooded in and around that date. the question is, will the site be able to support far more than 50,000 users. that remains to be seen. >> it does indeed. thank you very much. another developing story. new information on the man being held in north korea. 85-year-old merrill newman, one of two americans being held captive in north korea. we also have details about the video put out friday where mr. newman reportedly apologizes for crimes he's accused of committing during the u.s.-korean war. nbc's joe fryer has these details. what are we hearing about mr. newman? >> yesterday he actually got a

visit from an ambassador at the swedish embassy. that's because the u.s. does not have diplomatic relations with north korea. in a statement, the family expressed their appreciation for that visit and it does help ease some of their concerns about what happened. now, after that visit yesterday, the family gave us a statement. they say he has received the medications he was asking for and medical personnel are checking on his health several times a day. they said merrill reports he's being well treated and that the food is good. also, yesterday, the white house released a statement saying it was deeply concerned about the welfare of newman along with american kenneth bae, who's been detained for more than a year. newman, of course, disappeared more than a month ago. he has been visiting north korea. he's akorean war veteran. it was his dream to go back there. he was there on a nine-day visit, was about to leave, was actually on the airplane to leave when a military officer came and pulled him off. no one had really had a chance

to interact with him until yesterday when that diplomat from the swedish embassy was able to speak with him. there was a video released over the weekend we're looking at now. it shows newman reading an apology. apparently according to north korean media, he's apologizing for acts from the korean war, but it's unclear if newman himself actually wrote that a. ji. experts say it could be a positive sign. sometimes when we see public videos like this, it's an indication that north korea might be considering his release. alex? >> well, at least the good news from that, he's gotten his medicine with that heart condition. looks like he's doing okay physically speaking for now. thank you very much, n back's joe fryer. more on the deadly train derailment in new york city as millions are heading home from the holiday. zero option. is that all that's left for the u.s. after the latest incident in afghanistan? emale announcer ] we eased your back pain... ♪

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ntsb agents have been sent in to try to figure out why a commuter train headed for grand central station in new york city jumped the tracks, killing at least four people. 11 more remain in critical condition. first reports showed this was not a criminal act. a transportation authority spokeswoman said the curve in the track there is a slow-speed area. the black box at the scenes should be able to determine how fast that train was traveling. all seven cars derailed just about 100 yards north of the next station in the bronx. we are told there will be an ntsb briefing this amp. we'll have more from the scene for you in just about 15 minutes or so. right now, let's get more on that new report that the obama administration released today on the fixes to healthcare.gov. the government says it achieved its goal and the site is now running much more smoothly for a vast majority of users.

here's the former health care adviser to president obama on "meet the press." >> clearly, just like google and facebook an the internet sites are constantly tweaking their site, constantly improving them, this one still has a ways to go, but it is certainly working reasonably well. >> and joining me now, washington post reporter emily hile and msnbc analyst jonathan alter. and with a welcome to the both of you. i'll start with you, jonathan. is the obama administration starting to turn a corner on the rollout? >> i think it would be very hazardous to answer that question in the affirmative right now given what everybody's been through in the last couple of months. the truth is that none of us, and that includes even the code writers, you know, and software experts, none of us really knows how much this system can bear in terms of the traffic. they're saying 50,000 at a time. they're going to have to bear more weight than that as we move

forward. so the proof is in the pudding, in the experience the users have when they go on the site. i think any predictions would be very premature at this point. >> okay. here are a couple things we know about it, emily. the site still not able to do everything the administration wants. the companion sites for small businesses, also spanish speakers, those have been delayed. how much of a challenge do you think remains for the president relative to this? >> oh, i think there's a tremendous challenge ahead. certainly on the technological side. particularly on the back end of this system, when it comes to paying the insurers for these products. that remains actually to be built, according to white house testimony on capitol hill. so that's a big concern. and there are huge political challenges facing the president. i think the key is managing this a little bit better than the white house has. i think that the problem -- well, in addition to the technological problems, was the

fact that the white house looked very surprised by all of that. they looked kind of caught back on their heels by all this. and i think that the white house going forward really has to stay ahead of it. they have to manage expectations because there will be more glitches certainly. there are 7 million people that president obama has said he wants to sign up by march. we're nowhere near those numbers. i think the idea of, you know, all these problems are fixed is certainly not, you know, what's happening. but the white house has to look like they're getting a little bit ahead of this. >> alex, the problem here is that when the technical experts tell the political people something, the political people don't know enough about the technical details to know whether they're getting snowed or not. so the white house is essentially flying blind. they can sound very confident about how much better things are going to be, but they don't know because they're not experts themselves, and they have not managed the process enough to

know for sure that they're going to be told the truth from down below the chain of command. they don't understand well enough how misinformation moves up that chain. >> okay, so jonathan, november 30th, was that smart for them to say this is going to be the end point? was that political pressure he had to give something there? >> i don't think it was smart for them to set that november 30th deadline. they're setting themselves up now for problems if things aren't discernibly better in the next -- >> but really, did they have a choice? look at how the republicans are breathing down their neck. >> but there's not an election this year. i think they could have pushed it back a little further, give themselves a little more time. the key deadline is march 31st. for a lot of different reasons. if the system is not really working pretty well before that period, not enough folks will be able to enroll to let the whole thing, the souffle rise.

remember, if you pull a thread on one part of this, to mix a metaphor, it kind of unravels. so they really need this working in the early part of next year. >> okay. switching gears, guys. the president spoke about his second term and legacy in an exclusive interview with abc news's barbara walters. let's hear part of that. >> every president in their second term is, you know, mindful that you've only got a limited amount of time left, and you want to make sure that you are squeezing every last ounce of energy that you have to try to deliver on the commitments you made to the american people. >> what kind of a challenge is it going to be for him to do that with this state of congress, jonathan? >> i think that presidents have an endless ability to reinvent themselves. most people don't. they don't have the access to the public air waves and the bully pulpit the way a president does. he's down now. he can go back up. he probably will go back up.

there's a natural roller coaster in any presidency. you know, depending on events, it's much too early to write him off at this point. >> emily, your thoughts? >> looking at his second-term agenda, the two big items really are immigration, where he's already cut a deal or sort of found republicans in the senate that he could work with. the problem is that house republicans really aren't going to budge on that issue. they're taking a very different approach than the senate did. and also, the other key part of his second-term legacy would be on environmental issues. there he's totally bypassed congress, recognizing that he's just not going to find support in congress for this. and he's gone right to the epa. that's where those regulations are being worked out. so i think there's a recognition that republicans, you know, on the immigration part are maybe not going to give him the big signature achievement that he was looking for in a second term. whether that gets all worked out remains unclear, but it's certainly going to be a bigger

hurdle. on the environmental issues, he's bypassed congress. >> on immigration, actually, alex, i think that he will get a deal, but after the 2014 midterms. >> that's possible. >> he's looking to 2016. republicans have to do better than 29% with latinos, which is what they got in 2012. they really have to have immigration reform. >> total motivation there. >> and then there's iran. a lot of his legacy in the foreign policy arena will be determined by these negotiations. >> okay. emily heil and author jonathan alter and also executive producer of "alpha house" with amazon. such a fun show. just giving you a little plug there. thanks, guys. the highest paid television actor, a new list tells us exactly who that is. it's in today's number ones. he d things for the whole community: the environment, seniors, kids, and animals. that's why we created the share the love event. by the end of this year, the total donated by subaru could reach 35 million dollars.

you get a great deal on a new subaru. we'll donate 250 dollars to a choice of charities that benefit your community. it feels good to be a helping hand. the united states population is going to grow by over 90 ovemillion people,ears and almost all that growth is going to be in cities. what's the healthiest and best way for them to grow so that they really become cauldrons of prosperity and cities of opportunity?

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russian president vladimir putin is on top. his estimated fortune, $20 million. sofia vergara is the tyihighest paid tv actress at $30 million. jon cryer finished third with $20. 'tis the season of giving. you'll probably see the salvation kettles around town. the united way is first in largest u.s. charities with $3. 9 billion. salvation army comes in second at $2.9 billion. in all, the top charities collected $30 billion in donations. those are your number ones. re a.

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there are factors that can be looked at. the ntsb is going to come up and do an investigation. speed is one of the things they'll look at. track condition, et cetera. we shouldn't speculate on what they might find. >> just moments ago there, new york governor andrew cuomo. welcome back, everyone. we have more big news on the breaking news today, that metro north commuter train headed to new york's grand central station. it derailed just before 7:30 eastern this morning. four people are dead. at least 63 reportedly wounded. 11 of them critically. right now medical personnel, the nypd and firefighters are still on the scene. joining me now by phone, nbc senior executive producer of investigations. richard, with regard to the information you're hearing, anyone still trapped, and do you have any updates on the wounded? >> it appears everyone has been

taken off the train and all the passengers have been accounted for. we have an update right now. the death toll remains at four persons dead. it appears to be three women and one man who were fatally injured in the derailment. as the governor just said, it's a sweeping curve there and they're going to look at the track condition and the speed of the train. as he also said, he doesn't want to speculate. it's a little early. the engineer is, in fact, one of the people among the injured. you can be sure they'll be talking to him today. >> you can about imagine. so speed may be a factor. what do you know, richard, about that train derailment that happened july 18th? it was a freight train, i know. it was carrying new york city trash and i believe ten cars went off the track very close to this area. are they making any comparisons between the two accidents? >> they're not making comparisons, but what they are doing is taking a real good, hard look at that section of track. it's very, very close.

this train was headed south. that work train, the garbage train, was headed north. but it's yards that separate these two accidents. so they're going to have to look at whether a repair done to those northbound tracks should also have been done to the south, whether it was done or not, and they're going to have to examine the condition of the whole stretch of track. >> yeah, has foul play been ruled out? >> yes, the fbi was there very early. we also spoke to the senior metro north police officials. they said that specifically at this time, no criminalities. again, it's early, but it really looks like an accident. >> okay. and lastly, any idea how long this stretch of track is going to be closed down? which means travelers and commuters on the metro north hudson line are going to be in

for it tomorrow. >> yeah, there's no clue yet. ntsb will term when the tracks can be opened. if you've seen the pictures or can see the picture, the track is mangled. so the likelihood would be they'd have to route around it if they can get anything open by tomorrow. it's not just metro north. as you know, this is a busy part of the northeast corridor for freight, for commuter and for amtrak. >> okay. well, thank you for that update, richard. appreciate that. other developing news out of hollywood today. actor paul walker, the handsome star of "the fast & furious" movies died saturday in a fiery crash. he was just 40 years old. entertainment reporter alicia corrals has been covering this story and she joins us now. what a heartbreaker. >> shocking. >> i hear he was the passenger in this car. can you tell me what happened? >> he was the passenger in this car. it was a porsche carrera.

he was at a charity event, his charity event, raising money for victims of the typhoon in thailand. he was leaving the event. he was with a friend of his who was at the wheel of the car. they think speed played a factor in it. the car crashed. it was completely mangled and paul walker dead at 40. >> so single car accident or anybody else involved here? >> single car accident. nobody else involved. the car hit a pole. in fact, they said at the charity event, he was laughing, having a good time, left and about five minutes later is when t the car accident occurred. >> here's the part that was so disconcerting. there was a fire. i believe some witnesses tried to help out, but remains have been burned beyond recognition for both passengers, correct? >> exactly. the crash happened so close to the charity event he was attending that people were able to get on the scene quickly and try to rescue, try to save, but there are images out there. it's just horrific. there's no way anyone could have

survived this crash. the car was totalled. luckily, no other cars were involved. >> yeah. "fast & furious," such a successful franchise. which one was he taping? >> he was on number seven. so he'd been taping it. they were on a break. he had to go tape more towards the end. he's been involved with this franchise for 14 years, has appeared in all of them except for one. he says, you know, he loved fast cars. california guy. so this character he played really embodied who paul was. >> i imagine his co-stars are reacting, right? >> they are. vin diesel said he was his brother. ludacris absolutely devastated. hollywood as a whole. reese witherspoon saying she can't believe it. i've interviewed paul before. really wonderful guy, laid back. survived by his 15-year-old daughter. >> it is heartbreaking no matter how you look at it. thank you for joining us live about this. well, this is a critical day for the white house and president obama.

december 1st. the president said by today, the health care exchange website would be running virtually problem free for most americans. it's been about seven hours since the sietd came off overnight maintenance. so far, no reports of major glitches. joining me now, california congressman adam schiff. thanks for joining me. >> you bet. >> you know, sir, many republican counterparts have their fingers crossed hoping for the worst today. are you concerned there will be efforts to crash this system or opponents will try to capitalize on even the smallest of tech hiccups? >> well, they'll certainly try to do that. if there's any further problem with the website, undoubtedly some of the same people that have been going show to show bashing the president and the website will continue to do that. but i'm relieved there's been such substantial progress on the website. the proof will be when we have 50,000 concurrent users, but the white house says they're ready. they're ready for 50,000 users at the same time, 800,000 users a day. clearly, by any metric, the

website is much better than it was. let's hope that this is now the end of the botched website. we can move into a new phase where people are enrolling, where people are seeing the benefits of expanded coverage, where we can see the advantage in particular with people with pre-existing conditions. i'm hoping that we're leaving that painful, ugly rollout chapter behind us and we can move on now and evaluate the health care reform by the metrics of, does it provide the kind of health care access that it was intended to? >> okay. another thing to evaluate here, i want to ask you about something congressman mike rodgers had to say on "meet the press" this morning. so let's listen to that. >> here's the most important part of this discussion that nobody talks about, the security of this site and the private information does not meet even the minimal standards of the private sector. that concerns me. i don't care if you're for it or against it, republican or democrat. we should not tolerate the sheer

level of incompetence securing this site. >> what's your reaction to that, the concern about security? >> well, i'm not sure what the basis of that claim is, so it's hard to evaluate. i think a lot of people are throwing claims out there about the website. at the same time, you know, i think the administration has made every effort to keep this as secure as possible. you know, we have seen every effort by some foreign powers, china in particular, to hack into our system, can be a real problem. whether there's going to be much chinese interest in hacking into our health care site, probably less of a priority than hacking into military sites and other intelligence gathering opportunities. but the administration has got to keep its focus on making sure that there aren't any further problems with this and, you know, privacy is a paramount

concern. this is something the administration has to get right. i don't see an indication there's a problem there, although that doesn't stop people from just asserting it's the case. >> yeah, you know, you bring up china. i want to address the issue right now with the u.s. saying it's not going to stop routine flights across the east china sea. that's the area beijing has just unilaterallily marked as an air defense zone. are you concerned this delicate diplomatic showdown could escalate, and how do you see this ending? >> i'm very concerned about that. i think there's lots of reason to be concerned. no one goes into a confrontation like this expecting it to become a military fight and a loss of life. but it happens. you know, right now i think the administration is doing the right thing. we're not respecting this unilateral declaration by china. at the same time, you know, we have to be careful, the chinese have to be careful, japan, south korea that have other issues with china in terms of air space, water rights, island

ownershi ship ownership, have to be careful no to the allow these controversies to kindle into full-fledged blazes. so the vice president, who's on his way to the region, is going to have a tough job to do, reassuring our allies like japan and south korea that we'll stand with them and at the same time trying to lower the temperature with china. >> i was going to say, do you think this will be part of agenda, things he has to talk about? by the way, u.s. military jets have not announced themselves going into this no-fly zone, if you will, but the united states has said to all commercial airliners, you should go ahead and make your presence known as you're getting into the area. >> and that's probably a rational distinction. militarily, we don't want to allow this kind of unilateral declaration to become the -- given the force of law and fact on the ground or in the air. at the same time, we all of our civilian airliners to be as safe as possible. that's probably the right dividing line. this is very much going to be on the vice president's itinerary. a lot of our allies in the region are concerned that we still haven't made this

so-called pivot to asia, that our focus is still so heavily on places like afghanistan, syria, egypt, libya and elsewhere. but at the same time, the vice president has the challenge of assuring china that when we talk about pivoting to asia, we're not seeking a confrontation with china, we're not seeking to unduly constrain china's prosperity growth and even its increase in military sophistication. >> okay. afghanistan, let's get to that with president hamid karzai still threatening not to sign that deal that would keep american troops in his country for years to come. it's hard to believe that we're asking this because it once seemed so unlikely. is the zero option on the table now? could we possibly have zero u.s. servicemen in afghanistan at the end of next year? >> you know, the zero option, i think, is very much on the table whether the administration wants it to be or not. because the american people are really growing tired of this conflict, tired of the loss of life, tired of a corrupt government taking u.s. dollars often out of the country in

briefcases, sometimes in full suitcases. so i think president karzai is underestimating the degree of fatigue americans have for this conflict and the degree to which many americans would love to take this as an opportunity to say let's go to the zero option. at the same time, i think part of what's driving karzai is, you know, the mark of a statesman in afghanistan has always been resistance to occupation. so he's thinking about his legacy. he's thinking about his survival after 2014, after he leaves office next year. and i think he wants to kind of go out with a flurry of, you know, fighting the occupiers. but he's really playing with fire here because if he, in fact, drives us out by these demands we're never going to meet about releasing all afghan detainees, then the security of his government or successor to the government will downgrade in a big hurry. so i think he's taking a risk here. i expect he'll reverse course

soon. his own cabinet doesn't agree with him. this council of elders doesn't agree with him. and let's hope this is a short duration. >> all right. representative adam schiff, always a pleasure. thanks so much. >> thank you. gender equality in movies. are new films turning the tide? a new article exams that questions. [ woman ] too weak. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived.

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the early numbers are in, and black friday might be looking a little gray due to stores opening on thanksgiving. black friday, sales were down 13% from last year, but kbooined sales over the last two days were 2% better than last year. shoppers turned out for small business saturday. >> when our customers come in, many of them, we know their name. i don't know that ever happens in a big box. but we have great service. >> even president obama and our first daughters took part shopping at a washington independent bookstore. among his purchases "red spar row," "all that is," and "harold

and the purple crayon." well, "catching fire" is galvanizing the public on two fronts. for the second weekend in a row, it is dominating the box office, racking up more than $250 million so far. now a new article published in "the atlantic" highlights how the movie reverses gender roles to shatter stereotypes. joining me now, the associate editor with "the atlantic." ashley wrote this article. thank yous f for joining us. here's what you say. the fact that the central pairing in the box office record-shattering hunger games film franchise features a woman who's casually and unapologetically taller than her designated man is equal parts transgressive and reassuring. you also called this a small measured step forward. explain what you think. >> to understand just how transgressive it is for katniss

to be taller than peta, you have to understand just how rare it is both on film and in real life for a woman to be taller than her male relationship partner. in real life, there's a study that shows just how rare this is. in 1980, some researchers looked at 720 real-life married couples and found that only one in those 720 couples had a woman who was taller than the man. so then they looked at how often it would occur statistically if you took those 720 men and 720 women and paired them up randomly. you'd find 1 in every 29 couples had a male shorter than the female. so there's some anxiety, you can see, in the selection process of, you know, men and women being anxious about women being taller than men, right. >> well, this one woman i read in the article, she says she feels like an amazon if she's next to a man -- >> that's right. there really is anxiety among women about being taller than

their relationship partners. another study in 2008 found that when almost 400 undergrads were interviewed, almost a quarter of men said they would be okay being shorter than their female relationship partner, but only 4% of women said they would be okay being taller. so there is this very socialized, very pervasive norm that women should not be bigger or should not be taller than their male relationship partners. >> how much do you think hollywood is aware of this? are they trying to change it, or is it just something that's coming out of the hunger games? >> it's something that i've noticed in the hunger games that i don't notice in other films where an actor is shorter than the actress cast next to him. sometimes you'll see films where tom cruise is, you know, mysteriously taller than his co-star, when really in real life he's a lot shorter. like ethan hawke, like in "gattica" who is taller than uma

thurman. even in the hunger games, you see there are a couple scene where is mysteriously peta is the same height as katniss. it's not a consistent thing all the time. >> it is hollywood. they do have an ability to change things. i mean, it's hollywood. they're creating it. anyway, it is a great article, ashley. i really enjoyed reading it. thank you so much for your time. >> thanks. we have more on breaking news in the bronx. a deadly commuter train derailment. a train partially overturned on the bank of the hudson. an update after the break.

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we want to update you on our breaking news story. a metro north commuter train heading to new york's grand central station derail just before 7:30 eastern time this morning. four people are dead. the dead include three men and one woman. at least 63 people also

reportedly wounded, 11 of them critically. right now medical personnel, the nypd and firefighters remain at the scene. we're going to bring you another update at the top of the hour and hear from someone who was on that train, what he felt, and what he saw after the break. sas on the table by not choosing the right medicare d plan. no one could have left this much money here. whoo-hoo-hoo! yet many seniors who compare medicare d plans realize they can save hundreds of dollars. cvs/pharmacy wants to help you save on medicare expenses. talk to your cvs pharmacist, call, or go to cvs.com/compare to get your free, personalized plan comparison today. call, go online, or visit your local store today.

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breaking news at the top of the hour. you're looking at live pictures of a deadly train accident in new york city. it derailed just outside of manhattan. the stories we're hearing from some of the passengers are harrowing. you're going to hear one next. hello, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's 1:00 here in the east, 10:00 a.m. out west. here's what's happening out there with this breaking news out of new york city. a commuter train on its way to grand central station derailed, killing at least four people and right now 11 people are in critical condition at area hospitals. officials it at the scene say they had to inflate air bags

under those tipped train cars just to freeze some trapped passengers. this happened in the bronx area north of manhattan right near the merger of the hudson and harlem rivers. you can see from video at this scene one of those cars came to a stop on its side just inches from the harlem river. the area where that train came unhinged is a very steep curve. it's considered a slow-speed area. of course, the ntsb is going to determine what went wrong. we don't want to speculate, but there's at least one regular commuter on board who said he felt the train was going much faster than normal. >> yes, it was. i've taken this train for close to 30 years. when it went around the curve, i mean, i actually looked up. i knew something -- it was going way too fast. i was very lucky. i was on the side of the train that went down, so i hit the window. all the chairs came out and a woman who was sitting across the aisle hit me and slid down when we slid down the hill.

>> did you see any of the injuries? >> yeah, actually. a couple people were hurt badly right in front of me. when the dust was starting to settle a little bit, literally, the woman in front of me, she was bleeding from her head pretty bad. >> let's go live to nbc's kristen dahlgren at the scene. i know with regard to what the ntsb will do. they'll look at black box. they'll try to determine all sorts of things from a technical standpoint. but you've got to think that gentleman we just heard from who says he's a 30-year rider regularly, a commuter on this train line, they're going to talk to people like that too and get anecdotal evidence, won't they? >> reporter: absolutely. i believe they'll be talking to as many people that were on the train as possible. they already -- investigators have been talking to the train's conductor. he was also injured, taken to the hospital. he's believed to be in stable condition. according to new york city's police commissioner, they have already started interviewing him, trying to get information from him. so what we have here now,

though, recovery is now over. take a look down there. that is a crime scene. they've cordoned off the area, and there are investigators on scene now trying to figure out what they can about what happened here this morning. the medical examiner was here also, taking pictures, trying to figure out exactly the type of injuries they were looking at. so the investigation will continue for some time as they try to determine just what went wrong. a lot of people from this area, you know, you heard from someone who was on the train. people in this area who heard it also said they could tell that there was something difficult. they heard a screeching. one person described it as they thought there was an airplane coming at their apartment. so a very loud noise that sounded different than it normally did. we're also hearing just a lot of relief from people in this area who say they take that train all the time. it's a very popular line from here and from upstate down into

manhattan. a lot of people say they normally ride that train. if it were tomorrow morning, they would be on that train. i talked to one woman who was talking about when she first heard it and found out what had happened, she thought her daughter was on it. take a listen to what those moments were like for her. >> my daughter was supposed to be on that train but luckily got on the train before. >> talk to me about that, the relief you're feeling right now. >> you know, i feel like i got one free. i was only -- i was able to confirm she was okay minutes later, but those are probably some of the worst minutes of my life. >> so relief for her, obviously. there are other families who are not getting that relief this afternoon. there's a center that's been set up to deal with families, also people are being given a phone number to call in if they suspect they have a family member who was on that train but going to be a very difficult day for those families, alex. >> yeah, absolutely.

with regard to the commute tomorrow, it looks like there's no way those tracks are going to be open for the hudson line commuters there with metro north, right? >> reporter: yeah, and i think the mta is still figuring that out. if you look down here, you can see there are two sets of tracks. it was on the outside, the southbound tracks. those look like they're damaged. obviously, the rest of the train is still blocking some of that. the northbound appears, at least in area, to be clear. so there's a possibility maybe that they would be able to work something out with north and southbound trains. again, they need to figure it out. for now, at least, it's closed. and it's going to be definitely a difficult commute with diminished service at least tomorrow. >> no doubt. okay. nbc's kristen dahlgren at the scene. thanks so much. the other big developing story today, the obama administration releasing its progress report on healthcare.gov following its self-imposed deadline to make that site run more smoothly. more than 50,000 people can now log on to the site at one time and more than 800,000 people

will be able to shop for insurance coverage each day. it is a dramatic improvement from the problems users experienced since the site's launch on october 1st. key lawmakers reacted on today's "meet the press." >> the question is, are we going to work together to fix these problems, and there will be additional problems, or are we going to do what our republican colleagues want to do, continue to try and sabotage the entire effort, even though they don't have an alternative. yes, we have to fix it. we should be working together to fix it every day. >> the security of this site and the private information does not meet even the minimal standards of the private sector. that concerns me. i don't care if you're for it or against it, republican or democrat. we should not tolerate the sheer level of incompetence securing this site. >> well, let's go live to the white house where nbc's kristen welker has been following this developing story. kristen, lots of opinions today. what are you hearing from the white house? >> reporter: lots of opinions. the white house saying that the

website is functioning vastly more smoothly. jeffrey zeinst, who was put in charge of fixing healthcare.gov, saying today that it is night and day from where it was on october 1st. i'm quoting there, alex. but the administration touting the fact they have made hundreds of fixes over the past month. they say they fixed more than 400 bugs. they also acknowledged there is a lot more work to do on this site. here are some of the figures they're releasing. they say the site can support as many as 50,000 users at one time. that was the benchmark that they had mapped out. they say that means that the site can support 800,000 users over the course of a single day. and it works more than 90% of the time. that is a vast improvement. but the administration really hoping, alex, these figures will help to turn the page on what has been a very difficult political chapter. the president's credibility called into question right along with this entire law. so they're hoping these figures will help to move what was a

really rocky rollout of healthcare.gov in the right direction. zeke emanuel, who's one of the president's former advisers on health care was on "meet the press" today trying to look to the future. take a listen. >> clearly, just like google and facebook and all the internet sites are constantly tweaking their sites, con standpoistantl improving them, this one still has a ways to go. but it is certainly, wog reasonably well. >> reporter: but alex, a lot of questions remain. reasonably well doesn't necessarily mean it is working well enough. one question that tech experts have, how quickly are these 50,000 users going to be able to make it through the website, going to be able to actually enroll? then there's that other big deadline looming. december 23rd. that's when folks have to enroll to get coverage by january 1st. the website will get flooded when you get closer to that date. the question s how many users will be able to get access a the

that time. >> all right. kristen, thank you. joining me now, democratic represent of michigan. he's also on the financial service committee. a welcome to you. what are you hearing from the constituents on your end? have there been fewer complaints about the website in the past couple weeks? >> well, there have been fewer complaints in the last few weeks. i think people are patient because they understand that the problems are being worked on. for the most part, the people that i talk to back home, they just want to have this thing work. they're anxious to see the benefits of the affordable care act apply to them. they just want it fixed. they don't -- most of the people i talk to, they're not part of this political battle wherein the republicans have tried to make this a referendum on the president. they just want to see the affordable care act implemented in a way that works for them. >> you think once all is said and done and once it's up and running, this won't stay in the mind of voters, this really

botched rollout. the people will say, finally it's done, let's move past it? >> i don't think we can erase the fact the rollout was not handled the way it ought to be. no one can excuse that. for the most part, what i hear from people is not an interest in sort of finding fault or incrimination regarding the botched rollout, but they just want us to get it right. i think that's what we see now. it's not perfect, but it's certainly much better than it was when it rolled out on october 1. >> sounds like they're taking a practical approach. they just want it to work, which makes sense. republican mike rodgers from michigan was on the morning talk shows today talking about the affordable care act. let's listen to part of what he said. >> here's the problem. you have 15% of the population didn't have health insurance when this started, roughly. we think that number was high. we think it was closer to 10. what they've done is disrupted it for the 85% that had health care. and their costs are going up significantly. so we have broken the system to help a few. nobody would fix a problem that

way. >> what's your reaction to that? >> well, first of all, it's sort of a false dichotomy. there may have been 15% of the population that had no health care whatsoever, but what we also know is that many of the people who thought they had health care, they had health care insurance until they needed it, until they got sick, until they worked in a new job and had a pre-existing condition, until they hit their lifetime or annual caps. so there are a lot of people carrying around a card in their pocket that they thought was a health care card, but really what it was was a get-well card. it did not provide the kind of coverage they thought it did. >> okay. let's change gears here. i want to talk about iran. an american from your district who's a former marine, he's been arrested and held in iran on espionage charges for two years, since 2011. i know you've launched a campaign, calling on that country to free him. can you tell us about that and what the latest is?

>> obviously, we're hopeful that with the recent reengagement between the united states and many other countries and the republic of iran that we will see more possibilities for amir to be released. the hope is that it not necessarily be a part of this nuclear deal but that iran recognizes that many of us simply do not trust their word and that one way they can demonstrate that they are serious about re-emerging and reengaging the global community is to release the americans. that they're holding as political prisoners. amir is a former u.s. marine, went to visit his grandmother. he was there for three weeks and was arrested and convicted of espionage. that conviction was later set aside, but he still sits there in an iranian prison. if iran wants to rejoin the international community, they can make a very important tangible step by releasing amir now. >> but just to confirm, there

was nothing in this agreement, the six-month temporary agreement that secretary kerry negotiated in geneva that said americans in this kind of position need to be released? nothing addressed with that? >> i know there have been discussions in the context of these negotiations, but i do not believe that there's anything in the agreement itself that directly addresses these americans that are held. having said that, i'm very confident the american government has done everything that it can do. i talked to the president not too long ago. he spoke directly to president rouhani about amir and the other americans that are being held. so i'm confident that it's a high priority in the context of these negotiations. the hope is that the americans that are being held will be released, first of all, because they should be. they're innocent. but secondly, because it would be a tangible demonstration that iran is actually serious about reengaging the international community. >> all right. representative, look forward to speaking with you again. thanks so much.

>> thank you, alex. 43 million americans are hitting the road this thanksgiving weekend. it's expected to be a bit of a slow go in some areas. let's look at a very busy new york city and times square right now. traffic. how about the weather? how's that going to hold up? let's get to dylan dreier, who's here with the forecast. >> hey there, alex. where not to drive, times square in new york city. >> ever. >> but elsewhere, we are looking at decent weather for travelers. we have a couple of spotty showers in the northeast that made thicks a little slippery in worcester, massachusetts. that has since improved as temperatures have warmed up. we have lake-effect snow across parts of upstate new york and a bigger system in the pacific northwest. this is producing mostly rain. where it is snowing, especially in the highest elevations and over into northern idaho and moving into western montana, that's where it's going to be a slow go. the good news is, a lot of the mountain passes between western and eastern washington state, we

are not seeing snow in the passes. it's actually at the highest levels that we're seeing some of that snow. that's helping get across the state. temperaturewise, we are still well below average. it's not going to warm up up a that much today. minneapolis topping out around 34. 44 for a high today in boston. 80 degrees in miami. looking good down that way. as we start off the workweek and everybody heads back to work and school, we are looking at a chilly day in minneapolis. could see a wintry mix with a temperature of only 36 degrees. that winter storm in the northwest, though, will start to bring more heavy snow across parts of montana and into north dakota where we do have winter storm watches. but in the northeast, it is just going to remain a little chilly with highs below average, only in the 40s. alex? >> okay. but it's actually pretty nice outside. we'll take it. thanks, dylan. the investigation into today's new york city train derailment, could it have been prevented? a former ntsb official joins me. is it the gop's version of the hunger games? more food stamps cuts for the holidays. we're going to talk to the author who makes that claim in a new column. avo: the volkswagen "sign then drive" sales event is back.

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the ntsb has launched a team to investigate that deadly train derailment in new york. four people confirmed dead, 63 injured when a commuter train bound for grand central station jumped the track right along a steep curve and came to a stop just inches from the harlem river. one official said this is considered a slow-speed area, and the black box at the scene should be able to determine just how fast that train was traveling. new york governor andrew cuomo visited the scene earlier. >> there are a number of factors that can be looked at. the ntsb is going to do an investigation. speed is one of the things they'll look at. they'll look at track condition, et cetera. but we can't speculate on what they might find. >> all seven cars derailed just about 100 yards north of the

next station. the obama administration has released its much anticipated report on the fixes to healthcare.gov. report says the administration has accomplished its goal of making the website run more efficiently for the vast majority of users. and there was plenty of reaction on the sunday talk shows. >> if this program works, and i think it will, three months from now a huge number of people who didn't have health insurance are going to have it and mostly at a better price. i think that's the proof in the pudding. >> i mean, this is really feeds into the president's competence. that's really the question now that people have. is the president competent to do his job? and obama care is certainly front and center. >> joining me now, washington correspondent for "the daily beast," eleanor clift, and msnbc managing editor. nice to welcome both of you to the show. eleanor, i'll reach out to you first. the obama administration says this website is now running more smoothly. how crucial was making this deadline at midnight last night?

>> it was very crucial because if they hadn't made it, it would have been seen as another promise that was broken. but i think jeffrey zeinst, who was put in charge, really has apparently delivered. i think it's evidence that one of the errors they made originally was not having one person who was responsible and accountable. the responsibility was too diffuse. the president didn't ask enough questions. he's paying a huge political price for that. >> you know, at the same time, this midnight deadline comes and goes, but the companion sites for the small businesses delayed by one year, also spanish speakers, that website angle has been delayed. what are some of the challenges going forward for this administration dealing with those two things and other things, trying to reconcile it all? >> right, and you know, also just getting doctors prepared for an influx of new patients, community centers who will be providing health care to millions of americans who haven't had it. i think there's going to be a lot of messaging involved here,

a lot of helping people to get online and to figure out when is the best time for them to do that and how to get health care. i think, you know, beyond that, beyond the politics, what i think matters here is that in ten years we're going to have a much healthier nation. you know, i know that mike rodgers was on "meet the press" today and talked about creating a system to help just the few, except those few are 40 million americans. i think looking at the lodng game, that's what really matters going forward. that's what the white house sees. >> although, mike rodgers did bring up the issue of security and whether that has been addressed properly. but you have to wonder if he's just throwing something out there to see if it sticks considering things are going decently well since midnight. let's switch gears a bit. eleanor, i want to talk about your latest article. what kind of cuts are we talking about? >> we're talking about cuts in the supplemental nutrition assistance program, s.n.a.p., which is basically the fancy

acronym for what we know as food stamps. the house republicans want to cut $39 billion out of the program over ten years. the senate passed a bill that cuts $4 billion out of the program. so that's a significant difference. food stamp recipients have already endured a cut in november when money from the stimulus plan ran out. this is the holidays when we're all talking about feasting and buying. the notion that you would be cutting back on the benefits for the least among us, you know, strikes a lot of people as not good policy and not good politics. if you look at the republicans as well, the farm bill has normally been twinned with food stamps. they broke that apart. now they're putting it back together. but you see 33 house republicans have received millions from the federal government in sort of

crop insurance to help their family farms, businesses in hard times. well, they don't see the analogy with people weathering hard times, receiving food stamps. i could go on and on with statistics. i won't. there's a political gulf between the way most republicans and most democrats look at this issue. i do hope they can reconcile something before the end of the year instead of leaving, you know, people in this limbo. >> well, i'm curious if you think something will be reconci reconciled. if you look at the difference in these numbers, the senate passing a $4 billion cut and this seemingly draconian cut of almost $40 billion in the house. do you think it will get reconciled by the end of the year? >> i really hope so. eleanor's work is very important. we've also been covering issues with the food pantries who say they've never seen anything like they have this thanksgiving. really starting in november with these unbelievable cuts and more to come. i just don't think it's sustainable.

i don't know why they would choose to do that. i think that when you look at the differences in the farm bill and what could be accomplished, you know, i really hope this changes. the s.n.a.p. funding, especially for women and children, has just been extraordinary, the impact. >> okay. ladies, thank you so much. sorry we're out of time. we have had all this breaking news with the trail train derailment. good to see you. thank you. it could be one of the most incredible endings to a college football game ever. the remarkable sight and sound after the break. ess pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro.

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chris davis takes it from the back of the end zone. he'll run it out to the 10, 15, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. there goes davis! davis is going to run it all the way back! auburn's going to win the football game! auburn's going to win the football game! he ran the missed field goal back! he ran it back 109 yards! they're not going to keep them off the field tonight! holy cow! >> oh, my god. celebrations definitely in order. alabama seemed well on its way to a third consecutive national championship, but now it's the auburn tigers who are going to head to atlanta next saturday to play for the s.e.c. title. what a game. the next big shopping event of the holiday season, cyber monday. we're going to tell you how to get the most bang out of your buck. [ male announcer ] if you can clear a crowd but not your nasal congestion,

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anyone with concerns about someone who they can't locate, we suggest that they call 311.

there is a system in place to aid those looking for individuals that they can't find. >> and as we welcome you back to "weekends with alex witt," that is ray kelly of the nypd telling people how to access information on their loved ones who may have been on board that train. it is a breaking news story. we're going to update you now as the metro north commuter train was headed to new york's grand central station. it derailed just before 7:30 eastern time this morning. four people are dead. at least 63 reportedly wounded. 11 of them critically. right now, medical personnel, the nypd and firefighters remain at the scene. joining me now, the former managing director for the ntsb. peter, as i welcome you and i know you've seen these pictures, as you look at them, can you speculate given the placement of that train, how far it is away from the tracks, the position it's in what may have caused it to derail? >> no, it's really too soon to speculate. but i can tell you what the ntsb and the fra are going to be looking at.

they're going to look at the condition of the track bed, the condition of the rails. they'll look at the speed of the train. they'll see if there was anything that could have interfered to cause this derailment, and they're going to look at the engineer, was he performing his task as he was assigned? you know, was he distracted? had he had enough rest? it's a pretty standard investigation. but it will be thorough. >> yeah. peter, i'm looking at that which governor cuomo said, just paraphrasing a couple points of note, this train is supposed to reduce from 70 miles an hour to a 30-mile-an-hour zone. it would seem that it did not do that. typically brake problems, how often does that come into play in a situation like this? >> well, you know, these trains have very reliable mechanical

systems. they will look at the event quarter on the engine. while it's not as complex as, say, the black box on a commercial airplane, it will tell you how fast a train was going, whether brakes were being applied, whether the brakes were effective in slowing the train down, if they were applied. if it's a question of speed, that will come out very early in the investigation. >> okay. overall, how long until you get conclusive answers, though, typically in something like? given the fact there are four fatalities, well over 60 injuries, and a lot of people still pretty shaken up. >> well, the ntsb typically takes a year or slightly less in their investigations. but they give daily briefings. we'll have some indication of what happened here within the next two to three days. >> peter, are you concerned at all about the overall infrastructure, the extent to which the wear and tear after so

many years on these rails that they start breaking down, their cracks and problems and need to be repaired? >> there's no question an ageing infrastructure is a serious problem in this country. you know, metro north just had got through a two-day hearing with the ntsb less than a month ago. the topic of the hearing, it zeroed in on track maintenance, oversight, and inspections. so hopefully they testified that they were doing better. let's hope that's true. >> okay. a question about foul play. does that cross your mind in an incident like this? >> there is always a question of foul play. the fbi and the local police are always part of the investigation from the opening stages of it. whether somebody puts something on the track, something like that, it will be determined. >> okay. peter, thank you so much. former managing director for the

ntsb. appreciate your insights. >> thank you. if your credit cards are taking a break after black friday and small business saturday, be ready to pull them back out at midnight because cyber monday kicks off now in about 10 1/2 hours. joining me now, retail and economy analyst. with a hello to you, lots of hype about this cyber monday. fedex says it's expecting its biggest day ever. 22 million packages tomorrow. that's up 11% from last year. is cyber monday now every bit as big as black friday? because it seems like every big retailer is getting in on the cyber game. >> they absolutely are, alex. the reason why is because a couple years ago retailers realized that that's where shopping was going. they took a lot of their capital expenditures, which is money they use to build on infrastructure in their stores, build new stores, and hires and transitioned that to building out their online infrastructure there. so the big takeaway number here is $2.3 billion. that's how much people are expected to spend tomorrow,

cyber monday. that's up 15% from last year. >> okay. target.com, they've been advertising that over 100,000 items are going to be on sale. those deals going live in the middle of the night. is there an advantage to shoppers who stay up late or set their alarm for 2:30 in the morning and get up and shop then? >> the only advice i would give there is if you are planning to buy big-ticket items, those are items or making purchases of over $50. at target, if you're not buying anything over $50, you're not going to get free shipping. it's almost a moot point to get up early and go ahead and spend when you're not going to take advantage of that free shipping. the opportunity cost just isn't there. if you're going to make a purchase of over $50, go ahead, get up. you might get that free shipping, which may be worth it in the peend. >> year after year, we've seen the black friday deals. they creep further into thanksgiving, thursday. retailers competing to get the buyers first. i noticed toys r us had these

live cyber monday sales by breakfast time today. you think cyber monday bargain hunters should start window shopping now? >> window shopping is absolutely an option. what shoppers should understand is that these retailers want to maintain momentum through the holiday season. so even though these deals are coming out on cyber monday, more than likely a couple days from now stores are going to have even better deals. they don't want that momentum to discontinue. >> okay. i don't want to be scrooge-like here, but the sales estimates for this day for black friday soar to an estimated $12 billion. this is according to shopper track. but does that bode well for cyber monday? because with that much having been spent, you think people are still in the shopping mood for tomorrow? >> yeah, absolutely. again, alex, this is a country that likes to spend, for better or worse. it's what makes this country great. people are definitely going to want to spend on that. part of the reason why is you're getting free shipping. people are doing it by mobile tablets and mobile phones. it's making that whole shopping

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in order to go visit my family, which means a lot to me. ♪ today marks world a.i.d.s. day, and it's being recognized around the globe. the pope addressed a large crowd on the issue. are we any closer to an actual cure? well, michael elliott, the ceo of one, an organization dedicated to fighting a.i.d.s. and extreme poverty around the world, is joining me now from washington. with a big welcome to you, my friend. a.i.d.s. has been with us now for 32 years, michael. this year marks the 25th anniversary of world a.i.d.s. day. so give me an update on the status of the fight against a.i.d.s. right now. >> alex, i think we can look forward with cautious hope, to be honest. we've done a new report this week that shows that we're very, very close to a tipping point which would enable us to say we

can see the beginning of the end of a.i.d.s. that tipping point would come when the number of new infections each year is less than the number of people who are newly put on to treatment. our analysis shows we might be able to get there by 2015. 16 countries in africa are already at that tipping point where the number of new infections is less than the number of new people on treatment each year. so cautious optimism. we still have to keep up the political pressure. we still have to make sure that funds are available. not all the funds are available. but i think all of the people who have labored so long to fight this extraordinary disease can be cautiously optimistic today. >> you know, i'm not trying to throw cold water here, but are you at all concerned, michael, that because -- for so many in the developed world, it's no longer considered a death sentence. people can live absolutely normal lives with hiv.

so the concern that people are being less careful when perhaps engaging in risky sex, and perhaps that fatigue may have set in. >> and i think you put your finger on a really important point. the a.i.d.s. fatigue point is something that we worry about and fight about, fight against all the time. according to u.n. a.i.d.s., the united nations organization that leads the fight on a.i.d.s., with $3 billion to $5 billion a year short of the funds we need to really kind of take the fight against the disease to the next stage. i think there is a slight risk. as more and more people, particularly in the developed world, regard this as a chronic but manageable disease, some of the political pressure comes off. thankfully in this country and other places, there's been sustained political leadership over administrations of both parties and with people of faith and without faith from all walks of life to kind of keep pressure on to make sure that we keep the

disease in the forefront of policy. i'm determined that we continue to do that. >> and you say 2015, a more manageable way to deal with this around the world. but a cure, michael, is that within reach? can you give a time frame that you would expect that to happen? >> no, i couldn't possibly give a time frame. i'm enormously grateful every day at the brilliant, wonderful researchers, medical researchers around the world who are working so hard to find either a vaccine or what have you, new forms of treatment every year. they deserve our enormous credit, along with those activists who for 30 years have fought so hard to make sure that this extraordinary scourge that killed well more than 30 million people can be rolled back. i don't know when a cure is coming, but i give thanks to those who are looking for one every day. >> okay. well, michael elliott, ceo of one, my best to you and your family. i tell people happily so that we're friends. great to see you. >> great to see you, alex.

>> thanks. time for the big three. to the. ices, turning the corner, out-marketed, and this week's must reads. let's bring in my big three panel. msnbc contributor goldie taylor, professor of political science, jason johnson, and msnbc contributor and former bush-cheney senior adviser robert treanam. ready to go? goldie, first up to turning the corner. the president spoke about his second term and legacy with barbara walters. let's take a listen. >> every president in their second term is, you know, mindful that you've only got a limited amount of time left, and you want to make sure that you are squeezing every last ounce of energy that you have to try to deliver on the commitments you made to the american people. >> give me your best guesstimate as to how much the president will be able to accomplish in his remaining three years. >> with what we've seen from this current congress and what

we expect going forward, it's going to be tough to execute on any number of policy issues. chief among them, immigration reform. we talked about earlier, environmental stewardship and our energy policy. i think it's going to be very tough for the president to formulate a legislative proposal that this congress will pass. i think they're not interested in negotiating, but i think we'll have to see what happens after 2014 and see what this new congress, if there is, in fact, a new balance in congress, what it might bring. >> so you think with regard to immigration reform, the only chance that happening would be after 2014, after the elections? it's too much of a political hot potato after this year? >> i think it's too much of a political hot potato, no matter how encouraging this white house seems to be about it. i don't know that a piecemeal approach will work at this point. i think republicans are a little hot in the belly against some of the meaningful reforms that could move this nation forward in terms of immigration. >> okay. political hot potato to you, robert, our resident republican here. are house republicans holding up immigration reform? just, they want to be

obstructionists for the remainder of the president's term? >> i'm not sure where that's coming from, alex. the reason why is because when you look at speaker boehner and some of the other individuals coming out of the republican leadership on the house said, they've said they want an immigration deal. they have said they want to sit down with the president to try to come up with some time of compromise here -- >> they need one, right? they've got to help get back some of the voting blocs they've lost, particularly with the latino voters. if they're looking to 2014 or 2016, right? >> congress is at an historic low. it's at 6% right now. the republican party brand is obviously very, very low right now. to your question, alex, yeah, republicans, there's no question about it, they want a deal. they obviously want this deal legislatively, but they want this deal politically because they want to go into 2014 and definitely 2016 with some type of credibility on the immigration issue. i think there's going to be some type of a compromise and it's going to happen within the next six to eight months. >> but this gridlock overall, jason, how frustrating is it for the president and democrats who want to get meaningful legislation passed? you know, it's from republicans too. i'm sure there are plenty of

republicans out there who want to get something passed anticipaand it's just not happening. >> it's not happening and it's dragging everyone's ratings down. the republicans who have the reputation for congress, they're below 10%. obamacongress, they're below 10%. obama care is more popular than obama, that's how bad his poll numbers a numbers have been. i'm kind of in the middle. i think there will be some sort of immigration reform done before 2014, republicans need one thing in the win column. and i also think they want to set things up for somebody to run in 2016. but we'll say all the things he could have accomplished in 2016. >> timothy dolan is he the church has been outmarketed by hollywood and political voices on the same-sex marriage issue. what is your reaction? >> i'm a cath electric and i am a gay cath electric and i don't think that the catholic church has been outmarketed on this. i just frankly think public

opinion and that the numbers there are not on the catholic church's side when it comes to gay marriage. and when you also have a previous pope, pope francis, not the current pope, just talking about gay marriage in general and the sanctity of life and so forth, it sends a message that the catholic church was not, was not, for traditional -- for moderate families out there. but it seemses like the current pope is taking a different outlook on that. >> goldie, do you think hollywood and politicians are outmarketing catholic church? sgli . >> i think i have to agree with robert. if they were outmarketed by anyone, maybe it was jesus. i think that in terms of opening our arms and being comes passionate towards our brothers and sisters, that we ought to be about loving all people and making sure that all people have equal access and equal

opportunity in this country and around the world. and that includes our brothers and sisters from the lbgt community. >> i have a problem with the term marketing. that makes it seem like it was spin as opposed to common sense. we have larger things to worry about than who people want to love. >> okay. we are back with the big three and their must reads after a break. one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

. 55 past. a metro north commuter train headed to new york's grand central station derailed just before 7:30 eastern this morning. four are dead, 63 wounded, 11 of them critically. the ntsb has started an investigation. one official says the black box at the scene should be able to determine how fast that train was traveling. nbc also learning the train engineers made preliminary statements to authorities. we'll have the latest in our 3:00 hour eastern time here on

msnbc. we're back with the big three. ladies first. what is yours? >> my must read comes from the atlantic citys and it is about the new battle ground. it isn't necessarily in the cities or even in rural america where the vote seems to be decided. it is in suburbia where we're talking about really the soccer mom is back again and whether or not she will roll democrat or republican. >> jason, how about yours? >> my must read for the week is an in honor of today being world aids day. read pedro and me. if you were a college kid or high school kid like myself back in the '90s, he was dying of aids. a great story to read and shows us how much we've changed and vice president changed in learning about the disease. >> robert, what is your is this. >> a great peek a boo on 2016

and hillary clinton. >> i read that already. good pick. thanks so much. that's a wrap of weekends with alex witt. up next, "meet the press". ♪ [ male announcer ] if we could see energy... what would we see? ♪ the billions of gallons of fuel that get us to work. ♪

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than a regular manual brush. it seems like it gets more to areas of your mouth that you can't reach with a regular toothbrush. [ male announcer ] guaranteed "wow" with deep sweep from oral-b. #1 dentist-recommended toothbrush brand worldwide. this sunday, the race to fix the president's health care plan takes on new urgency as a key deadline is reached. >> there are thousands of people every single day who are getting health care for the first time. and by the way, the website is continually working better, so check it out. >> but is it working as well as it should be? with president obama's promises to fix healthcare.gov, will the website be fixed well enough to handle the millions of people that could sign up this month? and what will be the impact of obama care on the 2014 elections, and even perhaps the 2016 presidential race? plus, an historic week for pope francis with his first major statement, attacking what he calls, quote, the idolatry of mo